If Love is Weakness, Then It's a Good Thing I Don't Do Love
by Decayee
Summary: Five times Regina met Maleficent, and one time she said goodbye.


AN: I took some liberty with Maleficent's timeline for this to come together. Let's call it AU.

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Regina had seen something special in her the first time they met. Mal she called herself as she came looking for a job at the castle. She had great recommendations from a lord far away, and the household needed a bigger staff after Regina and her mother moved in. She was the same age as Regina, maybe a year or two older, a little old perhaps to search the work of a maid. But that was not what made her stand out. No. Regina had met plenty of maids in her days at the kings court. But there was something strange about this one. Her eyes burned with a fire she had never seen in any of the others. A desire. Not the desire to serve the king and his family, but the desire to rule.

Regina knew she had to look out for this one. There was definitely something special about her.

It wasn't long before Regina's suspicions were confirmed as she one day found the woman where she shouldn't be, in little Snow's room, standing by the window with something in hand. Regina crept quietly in through the door and put on her most innocent face. The face that had once belonged to a girl that loved a boy long before, in a time when hearts stayed where they belonged.

She observed the woman for some time before she cleared her throat. "You shouldn't be here" she said.

Mal flung around and a ball of fire left the staff she held in her hand. Regina caught it in her hand where it died with a sizzle, and as smoke rose up into the air a big grin spread across her face.

"Well well," she purred and flipped the staff out off the other woman's hand with a flick of her hand. "That wasn't bad, not bad at all." The woman stared at her defiantly. "I must admit," Regina continued, "that I have been waiting to see what you had in you."

If the maid was surprised by Regina's words, her face didn't betray her. She didn't say a word.

"Now, if you'd be so kind as to tell me who you really are and just what it is you want."

"My name is Maleficent" she started, her eyes sparkling. "And I want the kingdom."

"Of course you want." Regina tilted her head slightly. "But you can't have it, it's mine."

"For now" Maleficent smiled slightly. "But all that stands in my way is you, and that girl." She turned to the window and looked out.

Regina let out a small laugh at what was either extremely brave or just plain foolish. They both knew she could kill her in an instant with her back turned like that. But instead she closed the distance between them, placed herself behind the other sorcerers shoulder and gazed down at the cursed child playing below.

"You can't have her either" she said.

Maleficent turned her head so that their faces were almost touching. Her eyes burning again.

"What is she to you?" She asked. " She is not yours?" It wasn't really a question. Maleficent, just like everyone else, already knew that Snow wasn't Regina's daughter.

"Oh but she is..." Regina purred. "And I wont let you hurt her."

Maleficent smiled viciously. "We'll see" she said, and then added. "I saw something in your eyes that first time we met. Something dark. I didn't take you for one to love this child."

Regina backed away.

"I don't do _love_" The last word was dripping in poison. "That creature saw to that. But she _is_ mine and her life is for me to do what I want with." She stepped closer again as Maleficent turned towards her, their faces mere inches from each other. "And you can't have her. Go find yourself another kingdom and your own child to torture..."

She turned her back and walked slowly out the room, after all, she wasn't the one who should be afraid to turn her back.

"And if I ever see you here again I will simply have to kill you" she added lazily before she left.

It took a few years until she saw her next. But then one day, as Regina was passing outside Snow's room, there she was standing in the window with her back turned. It was just like last time, except in stead of her simple maids dress she wore a black piece that followed her body closely. Her hair was up in a complicated do, leaving her entire neck exposed, all but from one strand just behind her left ear that had made a break for freedom. She looked so different, even from this angle, but Regina knew instantly who it was. She had been expecting her.

"You seem to have a remarkably bad memory" she purred as she stepped into the room.

As before, Maleficent spun around and shot a ball of fire in Regina's direction. This time it was harder to stop and the heat burned in her hand before she could put it out. Regina couldn't help but smile as she threw one back. Maleficent ducked and the ball sizzled as it hit the wall behind her. Regina flipper her hand to hit the staff out of the other woman's hand, but Maleficent just smiled and shook her head with a mischievous smile.

Regina crossed the distance between them with a few swift steps, grabbed the staff in both her hands and pressed Maleficent back against the wall, bringing the wood up against her throat. Maleficent pushed back and the staff when flying across the room. Maleficent's hands went for Regina's own throat, but the queen caught them and pressed them back against the wall. Staring into the other woman's burning eyes Regina saw first desperation and then determination, before Maleficent pressed her lips against Regina's.

The sudden act made Regina let go of Maleficent's hand and back away in confusion... just like Maleficent wanted. She used the one thing Regina could not handle against her. But Regina would not let that slide. Instead of letting her get away, Regina grabbed Maleficent by her shoulders and threw her on the princess's bed. If she wanted to play then they would play.

Maleficent looked slightly surprised by Regina's reaction, which was clearly not the one she expected, but soon a smile grew on her face and she reached up to pull Regina down on top of her. Their lips crashed together as Regina pushed Maleficent's dress up with one hand until she found what she was searching for.

She trust, and was met by a surprisingly tender whimper. She trust harder and got a satisfying moan in return, and then another one, until she had to cover the other woman's mouth with her hand.

Later Regina lay on her back on the bed, shooting tiny stars into the air above her while Maleficent lay on her stomach next to her, her black dress tangled in the sheets at her ankles. Regina had had to put a blocking spell on the door once she realized she could make the sorcerer scream louder than an unlocked door made her feel comfortable with. Maleficent was running her fingers up and down Regina's arm in a pattern of her own creation.

"I came here because I was curios" she answered a silent question. "I wanted to know what you had done with the child. What plans you had that made it so important for you to keep her alive." Her fingers found a lock of Regina's hair to play with. "I was disappointed to find that you had done nothing." The silence she left was a question in itself. Regina ignored it.

"I knew you'd come back. Sooner or later" she said instead.

"I know" Maleficent said with a smile. "I have been here before, in the shadows. I have seen you, walking up and down this corridor, waiting to see me in this room." She pushed the hair back behind Regina's ear and continued. "I don't think you just knew I'd come back, I think you wanted me to. I think you couldn't wait to see me again."

Regina suddenly felt uncomfortable with how close the other woman lay, but also with how true what she said might have been. She had found herself looking inside Snow's room every time she went passed, and felt an unexplained melancholy when she found it empty. Not to mention the reasons she found to walk passed there in the first place.  
She etched slightly away from Maleficent's warmth.

"The time is not right yet." Regina felt safer answering Maleficent. "But I do have plans.

"Really? I thought you might have gone soft after all. 'I don't do love', wasn't that what you said? I figured all this time with the girl might have changed you mind."

Regina pffed in answer.

"Because" Maleficent continued "this was very passionate for someone who doesn't do love"

Regina got up from the bed.

"My dear" she said with a cold smile as she put on her clothes. "Love and passion are two entirely different things, and one can quite easily exist without the other." She fixed her outfit into place and turned her back to Maleficent.

"You might want to make the bed before you leave" she said and left the room.

After their encounter Regina made sure to keep tracks on Maleficent's movement. She didn't want another surprise visit to catch her of guard. And as it turned out, Maleficent did find herself a girl of her own to play with. A you beauty named Aurora. But the who and the why didn't matter to Regina, it was the how that interested the queen. A sleeping course. A course that might come in handy with a certain Snow White problem. She wanted it, needed it. Maleficent resided somewhere called the forbidden fortress and Regina figured that since Maleficent had been in her own castle enough it might be time to pay her a visit in her own.

It wouldn't be easy to convince the other woman to give her the curse, but she had one of her own to trade, and if everything else failed she knew how to get her to do as she asked with just a flick of her fingers. That and some passion, and passion was something they both understood. On second thought, she could just play that card either way.

A boy with a nickname as stupid as Charming made sure the sleeping curse failed and Regina saw only one way to make sure she got her happy ending. The evil course that little beast Rumpelstiltskin had given her. There was just one problem. The course belonged to Maleficent now. The last time Regina had seen her was when they traded and she wasn't sure she ever wanted to see her again.

That time, when Regina had left her in her bed, she had felt something stir in her heart, something she neither wanted nor could explain. She hadn't wanted to leave, just wanted to get back into her bed and nuzzle closer to the other woman, let her covers protect her from the world. But that was a ridiculous thought, Regina didn't need protection from anything. She didn't need Maleficent. She needed her course.

The problem was hot to acquire it. Falling into bed again was not an option, but Regina hade never really dealt with Maleficent in any other way. She went to the forbidden fortress with the intention of talking, instead they fought, still letting passion be their language.

When Rumpelstiltskin told her she had to use the heart of the thing she loved the most, Maleficent's face had for an instant flashed before her eyes. But she dismissed the idea completely. What she shared with Maleficent wasn't love. She had said she was her only friend as she left her after taking the course, and that was probably closer to the truth. She could try to use her heart, but there was no guarantee it would work. In that case her father's heart was what she needed. She ripped it out with a cold emptiness in her own. This was the price for her happy ending, and she had convinced herself that she was ready to pay it.

But Maleficent's words kept playing in her mind and every time she closed her eyes she saw the other woman's face. So the night before the course was to be commenced, Regina found her self once again on the way to the forbidden fortress.

The fortress seemed empty as she arrived and she made her way to the throne room and the open fire. The weapons she had flung at Maleficent's ridiculous, tiny horse were all back on the wall where they belonged. Regina warmed her hands in the heat of the fire, wondering if she shouldn't just leave again, when she heard Maleficent's sly voice behind her.

"I knew you would come, sooner or later" she said.

"I know" Regina answered with a slight smile on her lips and turned around. Maleficent was standing between the two big chairs, one hand on the back of each one. She didn't have her staff with her, but there was no need, Regina wasn't here to fight her.

"So you are going to do it?" Maleficent asked, her eyes burning with disappointment. "That is why you are here, isn't it?"

Regina looked down, feeling like a scorned child. This was her happy ending, Maleficent had nothing to do with it, no right to make her feel guilty over anything. She braced herself and met the other woman's eyes.

"Yes" she answered defiantly. "It will happen tomorrow"

Maleficent sighed.

"So is that why you are here? To warn me?"

The silence grew the longer the question was left unanswered. Truth was Regina wasn't sure why she had come at all. There was nothing between them, no dept left unpaid. Maleficent would just come along with the course, with no magic and no memory of who she was, or of them. There was no need to warn her, she couldn't do anything about it anyway. Regina parted her lips slightly, felt like she had to say _something, _when a soft nigh came from a corner and the horse followed. He trotted up to Maleficent and she moved one of her hands from the chair to his head. Regina stepped closer.

"You could have killed him" Maleficent said as she stroke his head.

"I know" Regina wasn't sure is she should apologize. "Do you love him?" She truly wanted to know.

Maleficent looked up at Regina, puzzled, and answered "Yes. More than anything"

Regina felt a sting in her heart. She knew now why she had come.

"But don't you know, dear?" She asked as she closed the distance left between them and took Maleficent's face in her hands. She placed a soft kiss on her lips.

She knew now why she couldn't bring her with her, at least not like this.

"Love is weakness".


End file.
